The ''đàn tam'' (

chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ) is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represented by new characters ...

: 彈三) is a three-stringed ("tam" means "three")

fret A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical inst ...

less plucked

Vietnamese musical instrument Traditional Vietnamese musical instruments are the musical instruments used in the traditional and classical musics of Vietnam. They comprise a wide range of string, wind, and percussion instruments, used by both the Viet () majority as well as th ...

. It has a long

fingerboard The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The stri ...

, and the body is traditionally partially covered by a snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular

resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a reso ...

. It is similar to the Chinese ''

sanxian The (, literally "three strings") is a three-stringed List of traditional Chinese musical instruments, traditional Chinese lute. It has a long fretless fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rec ...

''. It is used in ''

tuồng ''Hát tuồng'' (, Chữ Nôm: 咭從) or ''hát bội'' (, Chữ Nôm: 咭佩) is a form of Vietnamese theatre. Hát tuồng is often referred to as classical "Vietnamese opera" influenced by Chinese opera. Tuồng is distinct from the older h ...

'' theatre as well as ''

nhã nhạc ''Nhã nhạc'' (, , "elegant music") is a traditional music of Vietnam. Vietnamese court music is very diverse, but the term ''nhã nhạc'' refers specifically to the Vietnamese court music performed from the Trần dynasty of the 13th century ...

''.Leiter, Samuel L. (2007). ''Encyclopedia of Asian Theatre: Vol. 1, A-N'', p.448. . "In tuong, the orchestra leads the action, using several drum types (trong cau, trong com, and trong chien), clackers, slit drum, two-string violin (don co), three-string lute (dam tam), flutes, reed instruments (cay ken), gong, and cymbals (chap ..."

References

Vietnamese musical instruments String instruments {{Composite-instrument-stub